The Star Hopping Strategy that Could One Day Save Humanity

By the time the Sun turns into a Red Giant, humanity will need to have settled elsewhere. Here's how.

man looking at sky star- shutterstock
(Credit: AstroStar/Shutterstock)

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Some 5 billion years from now, the Sun will be running low on supplies of hydrogen for fusion. So it will begin burning helium, a process that will force it to expand into a red giant.

That’s not good news for us. The Sun’s expanding waistline will first engulf Mercury, then Venus and finally, in all probability, Earth.

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